An earthquake on Monday caused injuries and significant damage in a province on Colombia’s Pacific Coast as well as the city of Pereira, provincial governors said.
The temblor occurred at 7:34 a.m. local time near the town of San Jose del Palmar, Choco province, the Colombian Geological Service said in a preliminary bulletin posted to social media.
The U.S. Geological Survey said it measured the earthquake’s magnitude at 7.4.
Colombia’s geological service said its depth was 96 km. The country’s unit for disaster risk management said it was in contact with local authorities to verify potential damage.
It was felt in Ecuador and as far away as Panama to the north, and prompted building evacuations in the country’s capital of Bogota.
The governor of Colombia’s Choco province wrote on X that there were injuries and serious damage to buildings in the department’s capital Quibdo.
A woman prays as people gather outside a building in Bogota following an earthquake in the area on Monday.
| REUTERS
The mayor of Cali, Colombia’s third largest city, also reported “major damage.”
Footage published by local media showed damage to residential and office buildings in other nearby cities. Blu Radio reported cracks in buildings in Cali, Armenia and Pereira, as well as Medellin
Venezuela was hit by devastating twin earthquakes in June, which killed more than 6,000 people, mostly on the coast near the capital, Caracas.
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